Regulate bullets, not guns

March 17, 2013

That's pretty pricey for rabbit hunting, I think, so here's my better idea for bullet control: make bullets as hard to purchase as cold medicine.

Back when Iowa's Legislature realized they could do something about the meth epidemic just through cold medicine control, they wasted no time doing so. They required all purchasers to sign in before they picked up any cold medicine containing psuedoephedrine, an ingredient useful in making the dangerous drug.

That's what we should do now. Require all purchasers to sign in before they purchase any bullets. We don't even need to put a limit on the size of the purchase like we did with cold medicine.

This will create a paper trail to any criminal. It won't interfere with gun collectors or legal gun usage. It won't cost gun owners anything. It won't even prevent school massacres. It will merely show that we have overcome our complacency; we consider bullets to be as worthy of our attention as common cold medicine; that we think gun violence is a problem as big as meth; that legislators no longer live in fear of the gun lobby.